Potential therapeutic benefits of unconventional oils: assessment of the potential in vitro biological properties of some Rubiaceae, Cucurbitaceae, and Brassicaceae seed oils

Florinda Fratianni; Giuseppe Amato; Vincenzo De Feo; Antonio d'Acierno; Raffaele Coppola; Filomena Nazzaro

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1171766

Potential therapeutic benefits of unconventional oils: assessment of the potential in vitro biological properties of some Rubiaceae, Cucurbitaceae, and Brassicaceae seed oils

Front Nutr. 2023 Apr 21:10:1171766. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1171766. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Florinda Fratianni¹, Giuseppe Amato², Vincenzo De Feo^{1

2}, Antonio d'Acierno¹, Raffaele Coppola^{1

3}, Filomena Nazzaro¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Food Sciences, National Research Council of Italy, Avellino, Italy.
² Department of Pharmacy, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy.
³ Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy.

Abstract

Introduction: Seed oils are versatile in the food sector and for pharmaceutical purposes. In recent years, their biological properties aroused the interest of the scientific world.

Materials and methods: We studied the composition of fatty acids (FAs) and some in vitro potential therapeutic benefits of five cold-pressed commercial oils obtained from broccoli, coffee, green coffee, pumpkin, and watermelon seeds. In particular, we assayed the antioxidant activity (using diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) assays). In addition, through the fatty acid composition, we calculated the atherogenicity index (AI) and thrombogenicity index (TI) to evaluate the potential impact of such oils on cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, we assessed the in vitro anti-inflammatory capacity of the oils (evaluated through their effectiveness in preventing protein degradation, using bovine serum albumin as protein standard) and the ability of the oils to inhibit in vitro activity of three among the essential enzymes, cholinesterases and tyrosinase, involved in the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's neurodegenerative diseases. Finally, we evaluated the capacity of the oils to inhibit the biofilm of some pathogenic bacteria.

Results: The unsaturated fatty acids greatly predominated in broccoli seed oil (84.3%), with erucic acid as the main constituent (33.1%). Other unsaturated fatty acids were linolenic (20.6%) and linoleic (16.1%) acids. The saturated fatty acids fraction comprised the palmitic (6.8%) and stearic acids (0.2%). Broccoli seed oil showed the best AI (0.080) and TI (0.16) indexes. The oils expressed a good antioxidant ability. Except for the watermelon seed oil, the oils exhibited a generally good in vitro anti-inflammatory activity, with IC₅₀ values not exceeding 8.73 micrograms. Broccoli seed oil and green coffee seed oil showed the best acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity; coffee seed oil and broccoli seed oil were the most effective in inhibiting butyrylcholinesterase (IC₅₀ = 15.7 μg and 20.7 μg, respectively). Pumpkin and green coffee seed oil showed the best inhibitory activity against tyrosinase (IC₅₀ = 2 μg and 2.77 μg, respectively). In several cases, the seed oils inhibited the biofilm formation and the mature biofilm of some gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, with Staphylococcus aureus resulting in the most sensitive strain. Such activity seemed related only in some cases to the capacity of the oils to act on the sessile bacterial cells' metabolism, as indicated by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) colorimetric method.

Keywords: anti-inflammatory (activity); antioxidant; biofilm; cholinesterases inhibition; fatty acids; tyrosinase inhibition; vegetable oils.

Grants and funding

This study was partly funded by the projects Ministry of Education, University and Research project PON ARS01_00783 ALIFUN—Development of functional foods for the traditional Italian food products innovation (grant no. ARS01_00783), and by the project BioMemory—Network of scientific collections for bio-monitoring, biodiversity conservation, agri-food and environmental sustainability, and wellbeing (https://biomemory.cnr.it accessed on 5 May 2022) funded by the Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences (DiSBA), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), project no. SAC. AD002.173. This manuscript reflects only the authors' views and opinions; neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be considered responsible for them.